How on earth do you measure what good or bad teaching is? Furthermore, how exactly do we measure success in school? By test scores? Because the current thinking in education is that teaching and learning needs to be student centered. In other words, teachers should be taking their students individual learning styles, interests and needs into account when presenting information. But when you throw standardized testing into the mix, this individualized approach to learning gets thrown out the window, as teachers have to teach to the test. It seems like teachers are being set up to fail when the ideology that drives curriculum reform is completely out of synch with the reality of standardized testing. Not only that, but these days teachers are held responsible for socializing students and even parenting students, both of which should really be the responsibility of parents.

Contrary to popular belief, schools and teachers are not the great equalizing force in our society. The fact of the matter is, the single greatest predicator of success in schools is not the quality of teaching, but socioeconomic standing. In other words, eliminating poverty would have a far, far greater impact than firing so-called bad teachers.

Here’s a radical idea: rather than firing teachers or introducing yet more useless legislation, let students choose for themselves who they would like to be taught by. Because just as there are many different learning styles, there are many different teaching styles. What if it is not a question of good or bad, but a question of fit?